Women!

,If all women of this world would wake up tomorrow and feel at ease and powerful in their bodies, world economy would break down over night.‘ (Laurie Penny)

A question that keeps on coming up is how much emancipated women nowadays actually really are. The approach of the British author Laurie Penny, that economy plays an important role about it, is rather unusual. Based on this issue, the Volksbühne Basel has created a new play together with actresses and dancers. Moving and archetypal stories about women – across generations and with different origins – are told in concise and powerful images, life stories that take a stand in the area of tension between so-called equality of opportunity and commercial exploitation - in an emotional, bizarre, analysing, imaginative, sensuous and hilarious way.

In discussions with women between the ages of 20 and almost 100 years, the theatre director Anina Jendreyko, who lives in Basel, has collected biographical material of very different people which unites desires, life strategies and concepts of women and families. In collaboration with her team, she has condensed these touching and insightful stories that reveal cultural differences but also surprising parallels and still existing taboos into a theatre experience. As for the recent theatre play titled A&X, WOMEN! merges through the intense joint work with the scenographer Tabea Rothfuchs acting and scene to an expressive, passionately aesthetic evening. After the plays SELAM HABIBI, SONS and A&X, the Volksbühne Basel explores another highly topical issue from the centre of society and confronts the audience with its own internalized images of women.

Never before have I seen such good women’s theatre! I laughed heartily and I sobbed, I was furious and I dreamt marvellously. It’s great what you put up on scene. I found myself in every woman. Moreover, the evening was artistically so clear and beautiful that I will always remember it. It was really powerful. I came with critical young women, but that it is humanly and artistically so good makes one happy, even about this topic.’Actress and radio announcer Roswitha Schilling

‘How nice would it be if it was possible to tick off the play as cheerful memories of long gone customs and times. A sidelong glance on reality though reveals quickly that, alas, this would be over-hasty. Thanks for your great accomplishments!’Werner van Gent, journalist

Feminism is hip, the marketing industry is selling empowerment to the women – for instance on t-shirts or in glossy magazines. At the same time, sexism is made respectable and discrimination of all them who are not white, male and heterosexual is on the rise again in many societies.

Laurie Penny («Bitch Doktrin (Bitch Doctrine)», Nautilus, 2017), is one of the best known voices of young feminism from Great Britain, and Andi Zeisler («Wir waren doch alle mal Feministinnen (We were feminists once) », Rotpunktverlag, 2017 ), founder and editor of the “Bitch Magazine” in the USA, talk about the issues of our time, power, influence, redistribution, fairness and about what feminism can be nowadays. With Fabienne Amlinger and Corinna Caduff (M). Event in English with German reading.